


The Sun is Just Around the Corner

by spoowriterfic



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-18 21:37:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16525118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoowriterfic/pseuds/spoowriterfic
Summary: Set between 307 (or as we call it around here, "Monique!") and 308 (or, as we call it around here, "the potato licking episode").  Waverly and Nicole take care of each other -- Nicole is still hungover, and Waverly has to deal with being abandoned again.





	The Sun is Just Around the Corner

**Author's Note:**

> So, this started with Waverly seeing the picture that Bunny put face down on the shelf, and grew from there. I've always been a sucker for hurt/comfort stories, and Waverly caring for hungover Nicole only for Nicole to turn around and care for Waverly was a dynamic I wanted to explore -- especially because Nicole doesn't appear to readily accept care from others.

Nicole was convinced she could somehow hear ticking coming from the digital clock on the desk. She _could_ hear the stiff fabric of her overly-starched uniform creak just slightly when she moved and the little squeak her chair made every time she shifted in her seat. She could also hear her own heart beating and was pretty sure she could hear her hair growing too.

So she wasn’t quite sure how she hadn’t heard Waverly coming. One second, she was alone and struggling to push through the vicious pain in her head to complete paperwork she usually considered mindless drudgery; the next, she had dropped the pen she was holding when Waverly said, “Want some aspirin?”

She tried her best not to sound pathetic when she said, “Yes, please,” but she was pretty sure she hadn’t pulled it off since Waverly immediately came around the desk, patted her shoulder, kissed her on the forehead, and bent down to pick up the pen, all while depositing three pills into her free hand at the same time. “You’re an angel.”

Waverly flinched. “So they say.”

“Hey, I – it’s just a saying – I didn’t mean….” Nicole trailed off awkwardly; she was in no way in a headspace where she could handle feelings as complex as Waverly’s feelings about her parentage in any sort of effective way, and she knew it.

It was…hard.

Waverly had spent months convinced she was part revenant, only to learn that she was in fact part angel.

Assuming, of course, that Michelle had been telling the truth.

After Christmas dinner, Waverly had accused her of using a line on Mama Earp when she’d claimed she’d always known Waverly was an angel – but she really hadn’t been, at least not in the way Waverly had meant it.

No, she’d never consciously wondered if Waverly had literally-in-the-literal-sense-of-literally angelic blood (but, then, she’d never truly believed she could be part revenant, either). Still, she’d also instinctively known that there was something preciously unique about Waverly from the very beginning. She had her flaws, of course, like anyone, but she was so kind, generous, and giving that it really, truly, hadn’t been _that_ much of a surprise.

It didn’t hurt that she was almost ethereally beautiful, either.

So, certainly she’d always known Waverly was extraordinary; it wasn’t _that_ much of a leap to go from extraordinary to…extra-ordinary.

Besides, her view of what was ‘ordinary’ had changed forever after the first time she’d seen Wynonna send a revenant back to actual hell, complete with flames licking up from a sudden hole in the ground.  She lived in a tiny town full of demons and revenants and lovesick garden gnomes…so, why not angels too?

Waverly took pity on her and interrupted her stammered apology. “No, it’s okay. Never mind.” Waverly began kneading her shoulders, but she paused after a couple of seconds. “Is it okay that I’m doing this? I mean…I know you’re at work and…but I – ”

Carefully, Nicole rotated her head enough to catch Waverly’s eyes. It took far more thought and care than it should have; it felt like one wrong move and all that alcohol would make a sudden, dramatic reappearance. “Right now, I don’t care. Blame the schnapps. Or the tequila. Or the ouzo. Or your sister. Actually, yeah, blame your sister. But…keep doing that, please. At least until the aspirin kicks in or I can go home.”

Waverly squeezed her shoulders before going back to massaging them. “Yeah, about that. Care to explain _why_ you ran in here handcuffed to Wynonna and practically falling-down-drunk?”

Nicole gave up any pretense of doing paperwork and rubbed her eyes before resting her chin in her hands with a sigh. “So, the revenant biker bar?”

“Yeah?”

“They caught us trying to get the keys to my cruiser from the frat boys.”

“Don’t you have a spare key in the wheel well?”

“Broke off in the door.” Waverly’s shoulders convulsed as she pressed her lips together and covered her mouth. “Go on. Laugh. I’m sure someday I’ll appreciate the ridiculousness of all of this.” Then she paused. “Oh, damn. That reminds me…I gotta go get my gun back.”

“Your gun? Like…your _gun_? Your service weapon? Your actual… _gun_?”

Nicole grunted an irritated, wordless affirmative. “Wynonna made me throw it into the woods. Accidentally. I think.”

She could see how very desperately Waverly wanted to probe her for details about _that_ and could have kissed her senseless right on the spot when she saw – she _saw_ – the moment Waverly stifled all of that and asked simply, “Want me to send Jeremy?”

Waverly disappeared for a few moments when Nicole nodded miserably, then came back with a bottle of Gatorade in one hand and an energy drink in the other. “He’s already on his way. Wynonna’s going with him; she thinks she remembers about where you were when….” She trailed off with a vague gesture towards the woods. “Oh, and here. Caffeine helps with headaches and the Gatorade will rehydrate you.”

Nicole valiantly ignored the queasiness in her stomach at even the thought of drinking either of them. “Thank you,” she said, almost sincerely, though she set both down without drinking from either.

“So. You and Wynonna got caught trying to steal your car keys back from some frat guys in a revenant biker bar so you could get some points back with Bunny Loblaw, who had a heart attack in your living room when she saw a giant walking garden gnome looking for his wife, who is also a gnome – but the ceramic kind – which you and Wynonna broke with a maybe magic mirror that you also broke when Nedley tricked you into cleaning out his supernatural hoarder closet.”

Nicole groaned. “I don’t have a lot of ‘what the hell, Purgatory?’ moments anymore, but that sounds so ridiculous when you say it out loud all together like that.” She exhaled. “So they caught us. And Wynonna challenged them to a drinking game to the death so they’d let the kids go.”

“To the _what_?” Waverly squealed, then clapped a hand over her mouth when Nicole winced. “Sorry.” She stage whispered, “To the _death_?”

“Yep. Your sister pitched a drinking game to the death to a bunch of undead revenants.”

“And then?”

Nicole said it as though it were completely obvious: “And then…she cheated.”

“So that’s why she’s mostly sober and you…”

“…want to cut off my own head. Yeah.”

“So the revenant won, and then – ?”

“Actually? Technically…I won. We’d gone through the schnapps and were working on this bottle of really awful tequila when Wynonna made them bring us ouzo – and you know how much I _hate_ the taste of licorice – and he threw it right back up. She cheated…he puked…I won.” She rubbed her forehead. “Though I _really_ kinda wish I hadn’t.”

Waverly smiled and snuck a quick kiss to the skin just under Nicole’s ear, which made her shiver. Then she went right back to her massage, waiting with Nicole for the moments to tick down until she could go home.

Twenty-seven minutes to go.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When the clock clicked over and she was officially off duty for thirty-six glorious hours, Nicole leaned back against Waverly, who was still behind her, and sighed deeply. She loved her job, but right now she felt like death warmed over and was frankly not sure that thirty-six hours would be enough time to recover. “Come on, sweetie,” Waverly said, already pulling her to her feet.

Nicole glanced between Waverly and Nedley’s office and back again. Her head had cleared and, while she still had a horrific headache, she finally felt up to an actual conversation. “Meet me in the car?” she said. “I need to talk to Nedley for a minute.”

After Waverly left with a promise to retrieve her gun from Jeremy, she pulled the picture Wynonna had given her out of the desk drawer she’d stashed it in, and just spent a few moments just looking at it.

When she’d first seen the picture – when she realized what exactly she was looking at, what Wynonna was telling her – her first thought had been that maybe seeing the picture would clarify the still-hazy memories she had of that day – memories that were largely sensory impressions of fear, the sun-warmed wood of the canoe, the sound of screams, the smell of blood – but it really hadn’t – at least not yet.

And she wasn’t really sure whether that was a bad thing or a good one. The nightmares had been getting both worse and more frequent the longer the threat of Bulshar loomed over them, and it was entirely possible that dredging up even more memories might be worse than counterproductive.

But maybe – maybe – there were answers there. Maybe she saw something or heard something back then that could help them now.

She didn’t remember posing for the picture, or wearing the jacket, or really anything even about Nedley. What she _did_ remember was feeling – finally – safe. And she did have a vague memory of a kind voice and a warm, heavy hand squeezing her shoulder.

And her sudden determination to be that kind of port in a storm, someday, for someone. It had started her on the road that led…here.

She spent a moment looking out the window towards the sunset, and then she took a deep breath and knocked on Nedley’s office door.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Much as the Homestead was beginning to feel almost like a second home, there was something extra comforting about setting foot into the sanctuary of her own living room, Waverly gently closing the door behind them as Calamity Jane meowed a welcome from the stairs. “I’m gonna go change,” she said. “Oh, and, um, your blue bra…it’s behind the books on the top right shelf over there.”

Waverly stared at her.

“You’d rather I left it in Calamity’s bed for Bunny to ask me about it?”

Waverly blushed. “Sorry.”

Nicole waved off the apology. “That was the least of my problems today. Besides, I don’t think it was your fault. Calamity probably dragged it down from the bedroom…she does that all the time with my socks. Least I got it hidden before Bunny got….” She trailed off when she saw Waverly standing frozen in front of the bookcase. “Wave?”

No response.

She crossed the room quickly to stand at Waverly’s side. “Hey, what…?” Then she noticed that Waverly’s fingers were gently tracing the side of the framed picture of the both of them that Wynonna had snapped just before they’d left on their six-month anniversary date during the summer.

It was face down on top of the bookcase.

_She wasn’t entirely sure why Wynonna had felt the need to drop Waverly off for their date, but the thought – all thought – vanished when she caught sight of her girlfriend and saw the way Waverly was practically glowing._

_She looked beautiful – and she wasn’t even wearing anything all that special. In fact, she’d seen her in this very outfit before. It always looked good on her, of course, but all the fear and grief and uncertainty of the last few months seemed to have vanished, at least temporarily, and the change was breathtaking; Waverly looked confident, carefree, and so, so beautiful._

_It had almost been a reflex: “Take a picture of us?” she’d said, handing Wynonna her phone without really thinking about anything other than the fact that she had to preserve that…that…look…on Waverly’s face for the future._

_“Take a selfie,” Wynonna had retorted._

_But Nicole was determined and Waverly game, and after a few seconds, Wynonna obligingly snapped a picture of the two of them on the front porch, Waverly standing on the first step while she wrapped her arms around Nicole from behind, her chin against Nicole’s cheek._

_The picture was…well, she thought she looked a little bemused, but Waverly was radiant, and it made Nicole smile just to look at it._

_“Thank you,” Nicole had said absently as she’d set the picture as her home screen and contact photo for Waverly. She was hardly able to tear her eyes away from Waverly’s face on her screen and though she was aware in a peripheral way that Wynonna was teasing both of them about the ‘disgusting sappiness’ of the whole thing, she was content to let Waverly fight back, or not, as she wished._

_It was only much later that she’d noticed that Wynonna had texted the picture to her own phone but even then, she didn’t think much of it._

_A week later, she and Waverly had both found a copy of the framed picture in their bedrooms. There was no note, but a quick call to Waverly had solved the mystery – she hadn’t put it there, so the only other option had been Wynonna._

_She’d decided it wasn’t worth wondering how Wynonna had gotten into her bedroom – though it was now firmly on her running and already very long mental list of “places Wynonna might barge in on us.”_

_She was, in fact, beginning to suspect that the reverse list would be more useful._

The pictures, though, had been a reminder of the loving heart that Wynonna hid under so many layers of self-protective snark that she probably wasn’t even aware of its existence, most of the time – except, maybe, when she was alone with Waverly.

In fact, Nicole had long suspected that the Wynonna that Waverly knew was the _true_ Wynonna – the one the rest of them only saw brief glimpses of.

Waverly had once called Wynonna the best of all of them, and it was in moments like these that Nicole was most inclined to agree with her.

With the proviso that she was tied with Waverly, of course.

Nicole looked at the picture frame again. It had been such a little kindness, with such a big meaning behind it. It was Wynonna telling them in no uncertain terms that she accepted Nicole as part of the family. And now the picture was lying face down on the top of the bookcase, with Waverly staring at it in dismay.

It felt like a slap to the face.

It had probably been meant to be.

Nicole found herself speechless for a moment, then erupted into a loud but still somehow strangled: “That – that – that homophobic shithead!”

That snapped Waverly out of her reverie with a startled chuckle. “What?”

“I can’t believe she did that,” Nicole fumed, setting the picture back up in its place of honor. Then she turned – just in time to catch relief in Waverly’s eyes. “Waverly, you didn’t think _I_ – ?” She shrugged. “Oh, baby, no. I would never – I’m… _proud_ of being your girlfriend. And if I had to, I’d wait and I’d prove myself over and over again until they didn’t have a choice but to make me sheriff, okay? I’m not gonna hide who I am or the fact that I love you just to make homophobic jerks like Bunny Loblaw happy. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Waverly didn’t look convinced. Fortunately, Nicole had one last ace up her sleeve. “Besides…it’s a moot point. Wynonna threatened to send more lovesick gnomes her way if she didn’t support me. So….”

Waverly’s eyes lit up. “You mean you’re really gonna be…?”

“Has to go through official approval, but it looks like it, yeah.”

Waverly squealed quietly, then tackled Nicole with a hug. “I’m so proud of you,” she said. “I…I…I’m so proud of you.” She sighed and met Nicole’s eyes with a slightly helpless shrug.

_They’d been given a corner table at a farm-to-table restaurant on a ranch just outside of Purgatory. It was a steakhouse that had recently added a substantial number of vegetarian and vegan dishes to its menu and Nicole had been inordinately proud of herself for finding the place – it had been a stroke of pure luck to find the menu sitting in the break room at the station._

_Of course, it was going to be hard to top for their first anniversary, but she figured she had a month or two before she’d have to start planning that._

_She was a planner too, after all._

_She’d entertained a brief, wistful thought that by then, maybe they’d have defeated Bulshar, gotten Alice back, and ended the Earp Curse – so that she and Waverly could go somewhere truly spectacular – Hawaii, or the Bahamas, or Alaska…or somewhere where Waverly could actually see and experience the ancient cultures she’d spent so much time and effort learning about._

_But failing that, maybe she could find a nice spot on the edge of the woods where she and Waverly could sit together in the back of Wynonna’s pickup truck and watch the stars come out at night in each other’s arms._

_And, really, what fancy place outside the Ghost River Triangle could top that?_

_They’d been waiting for dessert when Nicole had suddenly taken Waverly by the hand and said gently, “I love you. I just…wanted to say that when we weren’t worried about impending death by apocalypse or Widows or….”_

_Waverly’s face was a mess of contradictory emotions but as the seconds dragged on and her mouth worked silently, tears filled her eyes. “I wish I could…say….”_

_“Hey,” whispered Nicole. “I didn’t say that so you would feel like you had to say it, or to make you feel bad. I just…wanted you to know. When we weren’t in some kind of crisis.” She met and held Waverly’s eyes. “Because I do, you know. Love you.”_

_What she didn’t say aloud was that she was pretty sure that she could tell Waverly ‘I love you’ a dozen times a day for a decade before she would come close to getting Waverly caught up on the love and affection she should have been given before the day newly-Heired Wynonna had shown up back in Purgatory._

_She had, in fact, made a conscious decision early on in their relationship to do pretty much that: to make a concerted effort to both tell and show Waverly how very much she was valued at every possible opportunity._

_“You…deserve an explanation.”_

_“Waves. Baby. You don’t have to. I promise.”_

_“Growing up,” Waverly said, a little choked up, “no one ever… ever said that to me. Not even Wynonna did, at least after Daddy…died. And she was gone so much after that.” She sniffled. “When she was there, she was so…hurt. And, I mean, it looked like ‘angry’ but she hurt so bad. So she couldn’t. And no one else…I mean, maybe Mama before she left but I don’t really remember. And Willa was a bully and Daddy didn’t even know I was alive. And so I stopped trying. I guess I…got out of the habit. Or never got into it.”_

_“Oh, Waves….”_

_But apparently Waverly had decided this was a time for truth. It made sense, in a way. With the last seal broken and Bulshar free, there were no guarantees. They’d decided as a group on the ‘no secrets’ rule, but Nicole sensed this was more akin to the truths she’d felt compelled to tell when she was dying of Widow venom. “But I’ve tried…saying it to you. I want to. Because I…I feel it. I just – ”_

_“I know. It’s okay.”_

_“My throat closes up. When I try. Because everybody I ever – they all leave. Mama. Daddy and Willa. Even Wynonna came and went all the time until…. Uncle Curtis and Shorty. Gus. And…Alice. And I know it’s not rational but when I think about saying that to you and it jinxing you and you leaving….”_

_“Waverly. I’m not goin’ anywhere.” She knew the words themselves would never be enough to convince her, but she had to try._

_“I know,” Waverly said thickly. “But we’re – we’re surrounded by demons and revenants and curses and…and you’re a cop, and all it takes is one non-supernatural bad guy having a good day, and – ”_

_Nicole pulled her chair closer to Waverly; what she wanted to do was pull Waverly right into her lap to give her a proper hug, but that might be going a bit too far. Their server had been nothing but sweet, but it was a small town and you never knew. “You’re right. I can’t promise nothing will ever happen to me. But you can’t promise that either. No one can. I do promise to do my best…and I promise I would never choose to leave. You’re stuck with me, Waverly Earp, for as long as you want me.”_

_The tension between them broke as Waverly finally, finally smiled._

_“Besides,” Nicole continued, “you do tell me. You tell me all the time. Every time you bring me lunch. Or when you get cat food at the store because you know I didn’t have time to go shopping. Or when you put my clothes in the laundry at the Homestead just because. Or when you don’t say anything when I just really want an actual, real, non-vegan cheeseburger for dinner.”_

_Nicole met Waverly’s eyes, her face and voice going deadly serious as she very deliberately echoed the same reassurances Waverly had once given her, though for very different reasons._

_“You tell me with every look.” She released Waverly’s hand only to trail her fingers on top of the fine bones of her wrist. “With every touch.” With a quick glance around, she picked up Waverly’s hand and kissed the back of it. “With every kiss.” She briefly caressed Waverly’s cheek before dropping her hand, conscious of their lack of privacy. “You tell me all the time, baby. Please don’t ever feel bad about that. There’s more ways to say things than just words. It’s okay. There’s no pressure between us. Ever.”_

_“Um,” Waverly said, her voice more than a little husky. “Um…let’s…let’s finish dinner. Fast.” Then she smiled sweetly. “So we can go home and I can show you how I feel.”_

_Nicole smiled and squeezed her hand. “Do you know…I didn’t used to believe in love at first sight? I thought it was silly.” She scrunched her nose up, looking slightly embarrassed, but she was determined to push past that and bare a little of her soul to honor Waverly’s courage. “Then I met you. I still think it’s kind of silly except that…well…I basically did. Fall in love at first sight, I mean.”_

_Waverly stared at her, her face going slack with surprise for a moment before she teared up a little. “Really?”_

_Nicole shrugged. “I know it’s clichéd, but….”_

_“You used it right!”_

_She had to smile at Waverly’s enthusiasm. “I used what right?”_

_“Clichéd!” Waverly waved her hands a little. “It’s just a silly pet peeve, I know that, but…well, cliché is a noun but people use it like an adjective all the time and it bothers me so much!”_

_Nicole grinned. “I love the way your brain works. And I love you.”_

_Waverly fiddled with her napkin for a moment, clearly working up the courage to say something, and when she did, it was a simple, serious: “Did…did you really…fall…?”_

_The complete disbelief in her voice broke Nicole’s heart just a little. So she opened herself up even more, showed even more vulnerability. “I had some…tough…nights. While I was waitin’ to see if you….” She sighed. “I-I don’t know what the hell I would have done if you hadn’t been open to being together.” She shrugged. “Move to Stamford, I guess.”_

_“Stamford?”_

_“Jim and Pam? The Office?”_

_“Oh.” Waverly blinked at her. “But…Pam said they were soulmates.”_

_Nicole shrugged. “I don’t remember much about that other world. But I remember that I loved you. Even though everything was different, that was the same. Isn’t that…kind of what soulmates are?”_

_Waverly stared at her, disbelief and wonder in her eyes._

_They’d been in the middle of dessert when Waverly said, “Thank you…for coming into Shorty’s that day.”_

_Nicole laughed. “Oh, God, you have no idea how long I practiced that whole thing in my head.”_

_“Really?”_

_Nicole shrugged. “It was my one shot. Planned it for weeks.”_

_“You did?”_

_“Waves…my hormones went into teenager-with-a-crush mode the second I saw you. I mean, I mooned over you in front of Dolls. More than once. And you can imagine how much fun he thought that was.”_

_Waverly chuckled. “You didn’t really.”_

_“He had me pegged from the very beginning. Plus, you know, ‘Waverly Earp, smilin’ at me from her front porch,’” Nicole quoted herself in an exaggerated, dreamily lovesick voice._

_“You remember that?”_

_“Of course I do. I remember sayin’ it, and I remember seeing it. But…. Look, I didn’t know if you were bi or even open to the idea of dating me…or any woman. And I…I would never push you or pressure you.”_

_“Did you know…you’re the first person who ever said to me that you didn’t want me to change who I was for you?” Waverly squeezed her hand. “That’s when I made up my mind, I think. Or most of me did. I needed a little kick in the pants from Gus but I think that’s when I knew.”_

_“I just…I decided that I was gonna put it out there, let you know that I was interested, and then I’d wait. And something would happen…or it wouldn’t. But at least I’d know I tried. So I had to try my best.”_

_“Thank you. For being brave enough to do that.”_

_Nicole tilted her head. “Well…it was more desperation than bravery, I think. I was kinda deep into puppy love at the time.”_

_Waverly smiled. “Happy six months, sweetie.”_

_“You just wait,” Nicole said. “It’ll be six decades before you know it.”_

_A few minutes later, Waverly spoke up again. “You know, as long as we’re baring our souls here, there issomething I’ve always meant to ask you.”_

_“What’s that?”_

_“A cappuccino? From a bar? Really?”_

_Nicole looked her right in the eye, guileless and sincere. “Okay, so maybe I didn’t plan out every detail.”_

_Waverly eyed her skeptically. “It wasn’t some grand plan to get me to take you out to coffee for a proper date?”_

_Nicole held her innocent expression for just a few seconds longer, then relented with a mischievous grin. “Pretty clever, wasn’t it?”_

_They were both still chuckling when the server came by with complimentary anniversary champagne._

_It never occurred to either of them to wonder how the server knew to bring it._

_Much later that night, Waverly had met Nicole’s eyes, the love in them shining so clearly, so brightly that tears pricked Nicole’s eyes as she said ‘I love you too’ one last time before they fell asleep wrapped around each other in the peace of the empty Homestead._

“I know, baby,” Nicole whispered before ducking her head and kissing her. “I love you too. Besides, you’re the sheriff’s girlfriend now. If the mayor ever decides to have a ball, I’m bringin’ you to it on my arm, and they can just deal with it.”

Waverly smiled, a little wistfully. “I’m the Heir’s sister and the sheriff’s girlfriend, and….” She trailed off with a little shrug.

Nicole hated that Waverly still had these moments of insecurity. “ _You_ are the reason Wynonna’s gonna break the curse. You’re the heart and soul of all of us, and between you and Jeremy, you’re pretty much our brains too. Don’t sell yourself short. Please. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Waverly sniffed. “Okay.” She visibly pulled herself together. “Go change. I’ll make you some tea.”

When Nicole came back down the stairs, she found Waverly puttering around the kitchen in an apron she didn’t remember buying, a large pot already beginning to bubble on one burner on the stove and a tea kettle on the other. “Waves, what are you – ?”

“Well, I figured you still might not feel great, so I thought maybe I’d make you some vegetable soup for dinner before I go. But could you feed Calamity, please? She keeps tripping me…I think she’s hoping I’ll drop something.”

Nicole chuckled and knelt to get the cat’s food dish. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “You didn’t have to do this.”

Waverly stopped and looked at her. “Yes, I did. I…ask you…to be my rock. A lot. And you…you’re amazing. You’re here for me whenever I ask you to be. And even when I don’t ask. I just…I wanna return the favor.”

Nicole poured out some food for Calamity, chuckling a little when the cat suddenly abandoned her post by Waverly and appeared at her feet, meowing loudly. She put the bowl down, then sighed. “I…I’m more used to _being_ the rock. Not _needing_ a rock.” A little silence fell. “And I just realized how that sounds. I’m sorry. I like being here for you…so I’ll try to be better about asking you to be here for me.” She paused for a moment, debating whether to continue, then squared her shoulders. “And it’s not a…it’s a privilege. Being your rock when you need one.”

Waverly winced.

“No, I mean….” Nicole sighed. “I’m messing this up. Okay, look…remember when I had the flu? And I tried to get you to you stay at the Homestead so you wouldn’t catch it but you wouldn’t leave?”

“Yeah?”

“What did you tell me then?”

Waverly frowned, then her face cleared and she gave her a quick kiss. “I said it made me feel good to take care of you. And that it was worth risking the flu. Okay, so we both take care of each other. I’m…sorry I got defensive. Go lie down. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

The next thing Nicole knew, she felt a brief stinging pain on her side that puzzled her until she heard Waverly say, “Calamity, get _off_ of her!”

It was only then that she realized she was drenched in sweat.

Another nightmare.

Damn it.

This was getting _old_.

Well. They’d been getting old when she had them once every couple of months. Once every couple of days, which had become her new normal since the day she’d heard Widow Mercedes say the name ‘Bulshar,’ was just…too much.

“I’m sorry,” Waverly was saying. “Calamity was worried about you but I was afraid she would scratch you. You were thrashing around a lot.”

“I think she did scratch me, but – ” Out of nowhere, nausea surged. “Waves,” she said urgently, already beginning to stand, “ _move_.” The world dissolved into a blur of misery and the next thing she was consciously aware of, she was sitting on the floor of the bathroom, Waverly pressing a cool, damp washcloth to the back of her neck. “God, I’m sorry,” she moaned. “Between the hangover and the nightmare, I just – ”

“My poor baby,” Waverly said, stroking her hair. “Don’t apologize. There’s a bowl of soup in the microwave for when you feel better. The rest is in the fridge.”

“Thank you.”

“Come on. Let me get you into bed.” Nicole raised a rather pitiful but still somehow salacious eyebrow at her and Waverly chuckled as she pulled Nicole to her feet. “You know what I meant.”

“Now I remember why I stopped playing drinking games,” Nicole muttered.

Waverly stopped dead to goggle at her. “You went through a bad girl phase? How did I not know you went through a bad girl phase?”

“Had to try to get my parents’ attention somehow,” Nicole said. “Didn’t work, so I decided to get my highs from mountain climbing and adrenaline instead.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna have to see pictures of this bad girl phase.”

Nicole rolled her eyes as Waverly solicitously tucked her into bed, fluffing the pillow under her head and smoothing down her blanket. “Do you have to?”

Waverly leaned down to kiss her forehead, then her lips, then her cheek, before she pulled back and said, “Yep.” She hovered between the bed and the door, indecision clearly written across her face, and said, “I can stay if you want me to.”

“No,” Nicole said gently. “Go spend time with your mom. It’s okay. I get it. I’ll be okay. I’ll come by in the morning.”

“Thank you for understanding. I don’t think…we’re not sure how long she’ll…be here, and I just….” She trailed off and shrugged. “You’re the best.”

“Only ‘cause of you, Waves. You make me want to be the best.”

Once Waverly left, though, she let the façade drop and called out quietly for Calamity, who, sensing her distress, snuggled close against her. Just when the silence became overwhelming, Calamity Jane began to purr.

Even that, though, brought up mixed feelings – it reminded her of the long, lonely nights just after she’d moved to Purgatory. After she’d met Waverly and fallen head-over-heels pretty much at first sight for someone who was already in a relationship, which was bad enough, but who was also, as far as she knew, as straight as the proverbial board.

She’d felt ridiculous and childish – she was a capable, strong, intelligent, professional woman. A cop. And here she was pining over a girl in bed at night, like a teenager with her first crush.

She vividly remembered one long night not long after introducing herself to Waverly at Shorty’s when she’d stared at the ceiling, berating herself for being unable to get over her crush and yet still somehow unable to prevent herself from replaying every tiny interaction she’d ever had with Waverly on endless repeat in her head.

She’d scrutinized those memories, desperately looking for a sign – any sign – that maybe…just maybe…she was seeing…something. A flicker of…something. Of affection, of desire.

It was a kind of self-inflicted torture.

The extra few seconds they’d held onto each other after shaking hands when she’d first introduced herself. She hadn’t imagined that; Waverly hadn’t wanted to let go any more than she had.

The hitch in Waverly’s voice, the way she’d trailed off when she realized the whole thing was just as awkward with Nicole as it would have been with a man.

The way she’d gone out of her way to emphasize that she was in a relationship with a guy – as though that was not a foregone conclusion even to herself.

_She reached out for me_ , she’d thought, remembering Waverly trying to regain contact at Shorty’s funeral, despite having Champ draped over her side.

_She was glad I called._

Stolen moments in the hallway, all-too-brief glances, a few precious smiles – they’d tortured her for hours until Calamity Jane had hopped up onto the bed next to her and first tried to lay on her head and then consented to going to sleep on her pillow instead, her head resting right against Nicole’s.

She’d begun to cry, hating herself for it but unable to stop herself. She’d worried Calamity so much that she’d groomed Nicole’s forehead so thoroughly that she’d left a little red raw area just by her right temple.

She’d been halfway – or more – in love with Waverly Earp already and, God, it had hurt.

She’d never been lovesick before, and she planned never to feel that way again. After all, every time she looked into Waverly’s eyes, she saw her future staring back at her.

But, damn, it was quiet and lonely in the house tonight.

On that uncomfortable thought, she drifted into an uneasy sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When she woke up for the fourth or fifth time, this time tangled up in her sweat-soaked sheets, she groaned and finally allowed herself to check her phone to see what time it was – a thoroughly dispiriting 2:04 a.m. – only to find an hour-old text from Wynonna: “ **get over here when you see this Mama left and other shit happened that i dont want to talk about and i cant help her and she needs you and also im drunk in the barn** ”.

She was up and throwing on the nearest clothes she could find by the time she made it to the word ‘left,’ juggling the phone and her clothes as she read the rest of the text and got dressed at the same time.

When she got to the Homestead, she spared a moment to peek into the barn to check on Wynonna. She found her either asleep or passed out, half sitting up in the far corner of the barn, but she appeared safe, so Nicole covered her with a blanket and smoothed her hair back with gentle affection that Wynonna would never allow her to show if she were awake.

She eased the door closed, then went into the house.

She found two opened letters on the kitchen table but walked past them. She and Waverly had learned the hard way to value each others’ privacy and autonomy, but once she learned a lesson, it stayed learned.

She knocked gently on Waverly’s door, not really expecting an answer, but she got one anyway; she heard a muffled, “What is it, Wynonna?”

She went inside and any lingering hangover or panic from her half-remembered nightmares vanished at the warring emotions on Waverly’s face – her eyes lit up with joy and relief on seeing Nicole but the tissues around her and on the floor and the lines of exhaustion and pain on her forehead and around her mouth spoke to the depth of her anguish and betrayal at being abandoned yet again.

She spared just a moment to wonder what the hell had happened to Wynonna that had been bad enough to keep her away from _this_ kind of pain in Waverly’s eyes.

Then Waverly sniffled miserably and she forgot all about Wynonna.

“Oh, baby,” Nicole breathed, crossing the room in a few long strides to sit at her side on the bed and gather her up in a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

“What’re you doing here?”

“Wynonna texted me.”

“But…it’s the middle of the night. Why did you even see it?” Nicole looked away uncomfortably. “More nightmares?”

A shrug. “I think it was seeing the picture.”

“Oh, Nicole….” Waverly pulled Nicole closer. “C’mere. We can be miserable together.”

Nicole chuckled, then kissed Waverly’s temple. “I’d rather you were _never_ miserable. About anything.”

“Ditto,” Waverly said. “But since we live in the real world, how about we lay here and cuddle and maybe try to get some non-nightmare sleep and then get up and plan a dinner party?”

Nicole lay down and spread four or five blankets over Waverly before she pulled the remaining blanket over herself. Waverly slipped under that last blanket as well, cuddled as close as was humanly possible, and rested her head on Nicole’s shoulder. “A dinner party?”

“Yeah. We need to celebrate you becoming sheriff.”

Nicole smirked. “We already did that. More than once, if I recall. Didn’t you lose the deposit on that costume?”

“You know what I mean,” Waverly interrupted with a laugh. “And they took it back after I mended it. I thought maybe we could have a double date with Jeremy and Robin.”

“Sure.”

“I missed Robin, and now that he’s back and he and Jeremy are together….”

“Our own mini Purgatory Pride, huh?” Nicole said with a grin, spending a brief moment imagining a teenaged Waverly – sweet, bubbly, on an actual, planned-out, conscious mission to be the most loved person in Purgatory who, with her innate sense of compassion and justice, had set all of that aside to befriend a bullied, outcast boy.

Because of course she had.

“Mmm…and we can….” Waverly’s voice trailed off; just like that, she was already fast asleep on Nicole’s shoulder. Nicole smiled and rested her cheek on Waverly’s hair, feeling sleep pulling at her too.

Having Waverly around by no means made her immune to nightmares, but she hoped against hope that maybe just for tonight, holding Waverly might keep the dreams away.

The next thing she knew, Wynonna’s voice was jerking her out of a deep sleep. Light was streaming in through the window next to them, and Waverly was beginning to stir next to her. “Hey, Waves, thanks for the blanket…oh. Hi.”

Nicole smiled tolerantly. “Hi, Wynonna. Been a while,” she added. “Think I interrupted you the last few times.” But unlike earlier in their relationship, she made no move to leave or even untangle herself from Waverly’s arms.

“What blanket?” Waverly asked, squinting against the sun.

Wynonna frowned. “Didn’t you…?” She glanced at Nicole, who was looking studiously down at the bed, giving her an out. “Oh. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Thanks for the text.”

“Didn’t think you’d see it till morning.”

Nicole looked away, this time sparing herself instead of Wynonna.

“She has nightmares,” Waverly said.

“I’ve heard them,” Wynonna said, shrugging when Nicole looked at her in surprise. “Not the best sleeper myself. And I was _not kidding_ about the thin walls.”

“I really, _really_ wish I hadn’t heard you say that,” Waverly groaned.

“That makes two of us.”

Wynonna mock glared at both of them. “Really? Which is worse, do you think? Knowing your sister _heard_ you having sex? Or _actually_ hearing your sister having apparently damn good sex?”

That was too much for Waverly, who blushed scarlet and buried her face back into Nicole’s shoulder.

“It’s your own fault, you know,” said Nicole.

“Come again?” Nicole rolled her eyes as Wynonna snickered at her own joke.

“You walk in on us when we try to be quiet. So we went to Plan B.”

There wasn’t much Wynonna could say to refute that, so she shrugged and said, “Look, I just came to tell you that you should hang out here today. Well, I mean, unless we find Bulshar or there’s a revenant problem or, you know, an apocalypse.”

“No, I – I can – ”

Wynonna caught Nicole’s eye, glanced deliberately towards Waverly and back again, and waited for Nicole to nod slightly before she said, “Aren’t you always telling me to take a day off? So take a day off.”

“I thought we were gonna plan a dinner party? I’m off duty today. We can menu plan, go shopping….”

“You hate grocery shopping.”

“I’ll go grocery shopping for you.”

Wynonna rolled her eyes when Waverly grinned sappily. Then she said, “Need me to go out and slaughter another wild turkey?”

“W-wild turk…you don’t mean…?”

Wynonna grinned. “Yup. Christmas turkey was a fresh kill. Disemboweled by Mama’s hand right in that kitchen right there downstairs.” Nicole winced. “Betcha wish you were vegan too now, huh?”

“Okay, first of all, that’s really illegal without a permit. And, second – ”

“And _second_ …she left. Again.”

“I…I kind of get it,” Waverly interrupted them, her voice quiet and a little hesitant, aching and resigned all at the same time.

“You _do_?” Where Wynonna, the night before, had sounded resigned more than anything, now she was all quiet rage.

Waverly shrugged. “Yeah. She told me a little bit about her and Julian. About how he valued who she really was. About how he….” She trailed off, then shrugged with a little smile. “History rhymes; isn’t that what they say? If Mama was me, then Daddy was Champ and Julian was Nicole. Daddy cared about her but not in a…love-of-your-life kind of way. Mostly he just…thought she was hot. Julian…loved her for who she was. For _everything_ she was. And he _was_ the great love of _her_ life. And…” She caught Nicole’s eyes. “…and if it was you…I’d spend my whole life looking for you too. So I get it. Even if I wish she’d stayed, I get it.”

Nicole had always thought “it made me melt” was a figure of speech…right up until that moment when every muscle in her body…melted. When her jaw dropped a little and her knees unlocked and her shoulders sagged and she felt like crying and laughing and smiling and dropping to her knees and pledging her lifelong devotion, all at the same time. She knew she had the most ridiculous grin on her face, and that –

“Yo, Heart Eyes,” Wynonna said, though with a more than a trace of humor in her voice, “you gotta breathe.”

Nicole dragged her eyes away from Waverly’s face to look at Wynonna and shrug sheepishly. And she saw, just for a second, raw, hopeless, naked longing in Wynonna’s eyes. It was gone in an instant but in that moment, she got another piece of the puzzle that was Wynonna Earp – much as she sometimes envied Wynonna her freedom to ‘get shit done’ without the constraint of rules or others’ expectations…Wynonna’s love life was, to put it charitably, a hot mess, and she realized that while most of Wynonna’s teasing came from general good-natured sibling joshing, at least some of it came from a very different place.

Wynonna wanted what she had with Waverly.

And Wynonna didn’t think she deserved it.

Nicole met Wynonna’s eyes again, deliberately letting her understanding and compassion show, just for a moment, before giving Wynonna another out and turning her attention back to Waverly. “Well, I gotta admit,” she said, “I see your point. I’d search the world for you too.”

“Aww, baby,” Waverly whispered, reaching up to cup Nicole’s cheek with her hand.

Wynonna rolled her eyes dramatically. “And that’s my cue. You two…have a…fun day. I’m gonna – ” She gestured vaguely. “I’ll see ya.”

They watched Wynonna go together, then Waverly looked back at Nicole. “Dinner party?”

Nicole laughed. “Dinner party.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> The title is taken from Jann Arden's "Shooting Horses." I kind of felt like it was a requirement that any post-307 story used a Jann Arden lyric as a title, you know? (The idea here, of course, being that no matter how sucky the ladies' day was (hangovers and abandonment and vampires, oh my), another day is on its way.)
> 
> Three other quick notes here:
> 
> 1\. I didn't expect this to get quite so long. Oops.
> 
> 2\. I may or may not be writing a companion piece that delves into all the 'coincidences' that led to Waverly and Nicole's anniversary dinner.
> 
> 3\. I, uh, may or may not ALSO be writing a companion piece about the time Nicole had the flu.


End file.
